HTPC Tip Of The Day: Upcoming Technology Edition
In the Media Center world, just like the computer world, technology is ever changing. Sometimes it feels like a three-legged tortoise struggling through a molasses flood but the bright side is changes are coming around the corner for the better.
In the capture world two significant changes SHOULD happen, for-the-love-of-all-that-is-recording-please-let-this-happen-or, this year. First to arrive on the scene, hopefully in March, will be Hauppauge’s HD PVR that will accept 1080p over component and encode it to H.264. This should work for Linux and Window PVR applications.
The next big thing will be the DirectTV H.264 tuners. They will do exactly what they say :). Tune DirectTV for your Media Center PC. There is some speculation that this tuner will be playing nicer the CableCard tuner. Time will tell… I hope! We have been awaiting this for what seems like a decade :).
The discussions are a little more anemic around the web. Our discussion kinda broke down into a Linux thread. ;). If you have any more links, please post them in the comments.
In the software world we have several things on the go!
There was a lot of people to write off Meedio, and I was one of them to be honest. However, I have noticed a bit of a resurgence within the community. Over at Meedios they have continued the dream of the perfect front end. They continue to develop plugins and have started an open source rewrite. Things are looking good in their camp.
Sage? Well they are always continuing to surprise and are always pushing out new release out the door;). I wish I was a beta tester to see what they have upcoming. Snapstream is pretty tight lipped as well.
In the Vista Media Center camp, they have started accepting applications for Vista Beta testers again. I really have no idea what they intend to do for their next release. Native high def disc support seems unlikely. There is some talk about Start Menu Customisation and some tweaks and twiddles here but I am not sure what they have planned. I hope to see some major partnerships like Netflix. Or even the porting of a Xbox marketplace to the Media Center. Any ideas what the next version may hold?